As an actor, Samouil Stoyanov, who was born in Sofia (Bulgaria) in 1989 and grew up in Linz, is a stage event. At the honorable Berliner Theatertreffen in May, he conceded with the Viennese Volkstheater production “humanistää!” the Alfred Kerr Actor Award for Best Actor. After studying at the Reinhardt Seminar, he established himself in the ensemble of the Munich Kammerspiele during his five years and has been playing in Vienna since 2020. In the OÖN interview, Stoyanov talks about his school days in Linz’s Pop-BORG, his life as a punk and why he canceled the Burgtheater twice.
OÖ Nachrichten: How did you feel when you came to Linz from Bulgaria?
Samouil Stoyanov: When I moved from Sofia to Linz, I was still a small child. My dad worked as a dancer at the Linzer Landestheater, and in 2000 we opened the Theater Maestro on Bismarckstraße in Linz, where I practically grew up. My dad decided to do it – and the whole family went along with it.
As a child you danced yourself – what led to that acting became the right art form for you?
The music came first. I played the drums for eight years and was in the class of Wolfger Buchberger at the Pop-BORG in Linz – with some musicians from the bands Bilderbuch and Folkshilfe. And why acting? I don’t know, probably because school was boring. I skipped a lot, failed twice, and then the director caught me smoking. He already said: “Go study acting.” I didn’t want to go there. I dropped out of school when I was 18, after that I collected donations for a while, I played amateur theater, I was punk – although I was already punk when I was 14 or 15, and at some point my mom said that I should study acting. Only then did I do it.
Did you trust in these times that you will find your way to happiness?
Not necessarily. I was a classic loser and always ticked differently than most children. School wasn’t for me. I often got into fights with the teachers because they were just working through the curriculum and I felt like they didn’t want to teach us anything. Of course I was unreflective, but honest with the teachers (laughs). I couldn’t handle them because I was young and full of hormones. And they couldn’t handle me. At the same time, I didn’t want to do justice to the structure that was offered to me.
How compatible were you with the Reinhardt seminar structure?
One of the things you learn there is how to speak – and I thought to myself: This is exactly what teachers should do – send information correctly. Of course, I had two or three cool teachers at school, and you can tell that the young people really like the material from them.
Is it true, that you hired the Munich Kammerspiele directly because of your studies?
Exactly, Munich felt right from the start, it was purely a gut feeling because I never act strategically. I am what I am, I just try to get through life with my anarchist spirit. Before that I turned down two offers from the Burgtheater.
How did that happen?
I went by invitation and then declined the offer – three weeks later the Matthias Hartmann scandal came to light. I also turned it down because I had promised my mum to finish university first – and I thought the Burgtheater was too big for me. Munich was much clearer. I canceled for the second time when Karin Bergmann was already the head of the Burgtheater.
Did you then complete the Reinhardt seminar?
Not quite (laughs). I did all the exams and everything else, except for the Master’s thesis. From a certain point, if you’re known in the scene, it doesn’t matter.
The pandemic broke out when you moved to Vienna. How did you do there?
At that moment I was happy to be at the theater. I agreed in January, Corona came in March. During the pandemic I knew: Fear is useless. I played a lot of basketball and renovated the apartment in Vienna with my dad. Now I’m half a handyman. Of course, Corona took a lot of people with it – but I knew that if I let myself be taken away, it would eat me up. I’ve hardened up from school when it comes to violence, pain and stress.
In what way?
If you’re a loser, you get beat up a lot. At home I lied that I started the fight myself. And when you’re punk, you only do nonsense – I’ve seen a lot of violence. But the worst part was lying to my parents. Today my parents are my friends, we have a great relationship. Because they work a lot with children, they continue to develop. And they accept me as I am – it’s not that easy either, I promise.
What is the inspiring thing about acting – and what is the difficult thing?
Hmmm, tricky – probably you cause it yourself when you start flying, namely piece by piece. And sometimes that doesn’t work, it’s difficult. It’s also inspiring when the direction is right, the group is right – when you have the feeling that we’re going somewhere together with the audience. That sounds mundane, but it’s not much more complicated. Acting is just work.
Dance, Music, acting – is there another artistic discipline that appeals to you?
I am currently writing a cabaret program with the actress Julia Riedler – because only theater is too boring for me (laughs). I’m interested in doing something for a different audience. And not with the same aesthetic standards as in the theatre. For us, cabaret is also about getting rid of something.
Source: Nachrichten
